Mini-Vacation

This summer has been long and difficult. There have been some bright spots, but when I think back over the summer what stands out to me the most is all the hard and sad and new. Not to mention the fact that Jared's end-of-summer & back-to-school schedule was fuller and more demanding than last summer's. We hadn't been planning on a trip back to Wisconsin before Christmas; but all of our friends here were going on vacations all summer and "getting away", and we realized that we really needed that, too. We decided to spend a few too short days with our family over Labor Day. I'm so glad we did! The drive out was a challenging one - pumping several times in the van and washing out parts in a truck stop bathroom (ew); extra potty stops for the somewhat newly potty-trained princess who decided that she absolutely would NOT go potty in a dirty bathroom (an inconvenient surprise, but one that made Mommy happy all the same); trying to get our portable dvd player to work, then watching our 3 older kids all trying to see 1 monitor because the other one is broken; giving Judah meds in his car seat - but the time spent with family, blood and otherwise, was well worth it! It did this Mommy's heart good to hear aunts and uncles, and such dear friends ooh and aah over her darling little boy! And just as good was seeing the other 3 get loved on and have so much fun playing with their cousins. It was a time to reconnect with just a few of the people we love the most. It was encouraging, uplifting, fun, restful - in a "new normal" sense of the word - and yummy:) We had the opportunity to have a family date at Oscars. Way special, because nobody does frozen custard like Oscars. Nobody. I had the privilege of spending a few hours with my sister-in-heart. We were so blessed by a visit from our most favorite Madison-ites! Of course we loved the time we had with our siblings and our way-too-adorable-for-words nieces and nephews! I also had the chance to go out with Mom, my hero. A "date" with Mom doesn't always happen; actually, it rarely does, so I feel even more blessed to have had the chance to go shopping together for even just a little while. And when I say shopping, I mean finding great deals on brand name clothes at GoodWill:) I feel like I got a whole new wardrobe! Well, not really, but close. Overall it was a great weekend, and at the end of it I was able to honestly say that it was refreshing and served it's purpose of making us feel like we "got away". And since I know that there are a lot of people who will read this, I have to close by giving "props" to Mom. God blesses me and my family continually through my mom. This weekend felt like a vacation because of the time and effort my mom put into it. Meals, clean-up, time with the kids -acts of service that I do not take for granted, but am so thankful for. And thanks to Dad, too, for his enthusiastic performance of a hungry restaurant patron, and for making a little boy's day by passing down some history in the form of the "little car trophy". I love you guys.